Thread: NFL relaxes local TV blackout rules

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d...pcoming-season

NFL eases local TV blackout restrictions for upcoming season

The NFL has relaxed local television blackout rules, a league spokesman confirmed to NFL.com on Saturday.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the change.
Home teams will now have to sell 85 percent of tickets to avoid a blackout in their local TV market. Previously, teams had to sell out games or receive an exception from the league for the game to be shown on local TV.
The change comes as league-wide attendance has declined over the past five years, the newspaper said.
Owners approved the measure at the NFL Annual Meeting in May.
Lowering the blackout threshold also is a matter of how revenue is shared, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
"It's optional if clubs want to do this and would only affect a few teams," McCarthy said in an email. "Last year only 6 percent of games were blacked out in a local market. This figure is down significantly from 15 to 20 years ago when 25 to 30 percent of games were routinely blacked out."

The blackout rule was originally meant to spur fans to attend games.
"If a team chooses to do so, it may set its capacity number needed for a blackout to be lifted at 85 percent of overall capacity," McCarthy added about the new rule. "More revenue than usual will be shared with the visiting clubs for tickets sold above that base number."
At the same meeting, owners also voted to add high-speed wireless Internet to all stadiums in an effort to add home-like services to the game-day experience.
"We believe that it is important to get technology into our stadiums," Goodell said in May. "We have made the point repeatedly that the experience at home is outstanding, and we have to compete with that in some fashion by making sure that we create the same kind of environment in our stadiums and create the same kind of technology."
The league will also begin showing the same replays in stadiums that game officials see when reviewing plays, the report said.